MUNCIE – City police on Wednesday arrested a man in the recent theft of 26 grooming tables — property of Muncie’s Animal Rescue Fund organization — from a near-westside warehouse.

James Elwood Creel, 37, was preliminarily charged with theft. He was being held in the Delaware County jail under a $5,000 bond on Wednesday evening.

City police investigator Brian Campbell said authorities learned Creel had sold the stolen tables to the proprietors of a northeastside flea market, who in turned re-sold them.

Creel apparently sold the tables — stolen from a warehouse at 1491 W. Kilgore Ave. — on April 6.

Investigators believe Sean Christopher Straws, 34, of Muncie — arrested in the same warehouse last Friday night while allegedly in the process of stealing scrap metal — was also involved in the theft of the tables.

In court documents, Straws and Creel are listed as living at the same West Orchard Place address. Straws — preliminarily charged with burglary in the Friday break-in — also remained in the jail on Wednesday under a $5,000 bond.

City police Sgt. Seth Stanley said the owners of the flea market had apparently agreed to donate the money raised through the sale of the stolen tables to ARF.